Saturday, January 25, 2014

Research from flight Promotional Codes comparison website Skyscanner.net this week claimed that the best time to book a flight for the cheapest fare was, on average, five weeks ahead of the departure date. The website came to this conclusion by analysing over 200 million searches and the actual prices paid by customers over three years.

The best time to book for Britain's leading summer destinations ranged from three weeks before travel for those heading to Greece and 21 weeks ahead for those going to the USA. Skyscanner found that those who booked at the optimum time for the USA saved £120 compared to booking during the week of departure.

The general rule is that: the more seats there are available, the cheaper tickets will be, according to Sophie Butler, our advice columnist. Therefore it pays to book early. However, if many seats remain available near to the departure date, which can happen for flights in non-peak, non-holiday periods, the airline may hold a seat sale, meaning that last-minute bargains can be snapped up.

It is worth considering though, that if you're travelling as a group or family and leave booking flights to just five weeks before departure, there may not be enough seats left.

Nick Trend, Telegraph Travel's consumer editor, said: "The best advice for when to book flights depends both on when you want to travel, and how flexible you are able to be.

"If you are a family who wants to fly during the school summer holidays on a particular date, you should certainly book now. If you leave it later there is a very high risk you will pay a much higher fare, and may not even be able to book the flights you want at all."

Final destination is important too. If you can be flexible about where you want to travel, you may be able to pick up a very good value fare close to the departure date. But if you have your mind set on a fixed destination, particularly in peak holiday periods (which may differ according to the location - December for the Caribbean, and July for Spain or Italy, for example) then you would be wise to book as soon as possible.

A spokesperson for Skyscanner said: "There may be other times throughout the year when customers might get a cheap flight and of course many people will be more comfortable booking further in advance, especially as prices close to departure can be quite volatile."

She added that if customers wanted to get the best deal, they would be best researching prices and tracking fares by signing up for price alerts, which allow travellers to see when low fares become available.

It also pays to compare fares using several price comparison websites before booking, as Donald Strachan, Telegraph Travel's technology expert, advises here.

In addition, the Skyscanner research looked at the average per person return price for Britons' top ten August destinations. They found that the average fare for Spain, for example, was £153. But again, there are so many variables even within travel to one country that it is difficult to give overall averages. For example, in Spain, flight prices to Madrid generally plummet in August due to the heat, but increase to coastal destinations such as Malaga.

Overall, there is no one fixed answer to when it is best to book a flight. The answer depends on multiple factors, including whether you are flying short or long haul, during peak or off-peak periods, and whether you are set on a specific destination.

She first heard his name in a short film included with the Disney home video Bambi that Tom watched with her young daughter about the making of the 1942 classic. Wong wasn't interviewed in the film, but the other animators spoke of his work with such admiration that Tom knew she had to find and tell the artist's story. She successfully tracked him down in 1998, locating the playful Wong in Los Angeles trying to teach goldfish in his pond to eat at the sound of a bell, and building kites and flying them off the Santa Monica pier.

Tom's mission to make Wong's story as familiar as the beloved children's film that he helped to create, is at the core of her new work-in-progress, the documentary, Tyrus Wong: Brushstrokes in Hollywood.

I'll get the chance to experience some of Wong's magic, when Tom is in town to present some of the artist's story and show excerpts from her documentary at two upcoming events: a fundraiser and dance at Paradiso Restaurant, in Alexandria, Virginia, on January 25 and a "Talk Story" program at the Chinatown Community Cultural Center on H Street, NW, on January 26.

While Wong's culturally-infused art, is largely unknown to the American general public, his Hollywood career spanned more than 30 years and his illustrations appeared in such iconic American films as Rebel without a Cause, Harpers, The Wild Bunch, and PT 109.

He got the job on the Bambi project by taking a bit of a gamble. He was a young artist employed by the Disney studio, but tasked with the entry-level job of finishing off the work of the animators and crafting the "in-between" animations that completed the characters' movements. Wong had learned that studio executives were creating a film from the new novel, Bambi, A Life in the Woods by Felix Salten. Tom says the young artist read the book and without consulting his supervisor, "took the script and painted all the backgrounds to set the mood, color and the design." His sketches recalled the lush mountain and forest scenes of Sung dynasty landscape paintings. His initiative paid off. Walt Disney, who was looking for something new for the film, was captivated and personally directed that Wong be moved up to an art director position. Today, top animators and illustrators revere Wong's work. Children today are as enchanted by the misty, lyrical brushstrokes of Wong's colorful nature scenes, inspired by his training at Otis College of Art and self-study of Sung Dynasty art and the Chinese alphabet, as they were in 1942. His work has been much admired in a retrospective on view in San Francisco at the Walt Disney Family Museum (Hurry in, the show closes February 2, 2014).

"Look at his Bambi illustrations, they look like Chinese paintings," says Tom. "He wasn't trying to be clever, just himself. What I found remarkable was that he was retaining his Chinese influence." And at a time, she adds, when it was difficult for immigrants to retain their heritage and be accepted as American.

"Now you see a lot of inclusion and diversity in life. For him it could have been a hindrance but it wasn't. He worked in film and fine art. He designed Christmas cards, and painted calligraphy on ceramics that were sold in high end department stores. His work is almost like Chinese-American art that he interpreted, made his, and [made] accessible to everyone else.

"One of the people in my film says what made his (Wong's) work so successful was that it was clearly from another country, but it was accessible and appealing to everyone," she adds.

Born in 1910 Canton, today's Guangshou, China, Tyrus Wong was nine-years old when he and his father immigrated to California. Their month-long detention at Angel Island offered the father and son a glimpse of what lie ahead for them in their new homeland.

Sunday, January 19, 2014

With negotiations between agents, All-Star players and MLB teams, the Best Offer and worse pre-arbitration deals occur during the offseason.

Curious as to what exactly arbitration is?

In a J anuary 2004 article by Jack McDowell of Yahoo! Sports he simplified the meaning, "Arbitration establishes a system in which salaries from top to bottom are reviewed and adjusted to mirror those of equal players."

In other words, players that sign smaller contracts and become stars get a chance to have a contract reflect what they are worth. With the case of many young, top prospects, MLB teams have a security blanket in terms of a smaller contract. But, if a player does succeed their worth then many teams do renegotiate a contract before that player enters that arbitration period.

AP sports writer Ronald Blum highlights that "Arbitration-eligible baseball players get average 119 percent Raise" in a February 2013 article on Komo News.

Players like Clayton Kershaw and Tim Lincecum gained hefty raises before having to enter the arbitration period. And in the case of Kershaw, who was eligible for arbitration in 2014, is expected to sign a contract extension worth $215 million, via Ramona Shelburne of ESPN on Twitter. Kershaw won't have to deal with arbitration coming up.

In comparison to both sides of Kershaw's deal strictly looking at MLB All-Stars, we'll rank the best and worst deals in recent MLB history.

There is now an added incentive for both tourists and locals to do more of their shopping in Downtown Biloxi. The new campaign is called Doubloon Deals with the funding coming from a $100,000 BP grant.

After driving past Downtown Biloxi many times Clint Caldwell says he felt it was time to explore the area and its shops.

"We're from Ocean Springs and have never stopped," said Caldwell. "So we just decided to take Saturday morning and come to Downtown Biloxi and see the shops and things."

About 20 shops and restaurants are participating in the Doubloon Deals campaign. The way it works is people go by the Biloxi visitors center to get their doubloon then take the token to the businesses and receive a discount on their purchases.

"We've got a little map that goes with it. A new Downtown guide," said Kay Carter, Biloxi Main Street Director. "We often have people say 'I didn't even know this shop was here.' So hopefully it will bring a few people in the doors that didn't know it was there and a lot of shops, mom and pop shops, have a hard time offering discounts so this is just a way to give a little discount or an added incentive to come."

Some merchants said their incentive to take part in Doubloon Deals was the flexibility the program offers.

Gail Cheney is an artist with Gallery 782. "I think one unique thing about the program is right now our incentive is 10 percent off of one item," said Cheney. "But we can change that as we roll with the program to something that might work better for tourists or locals. We're hoping to get more locals too."

This push to get more local customers and tourists in the area is being paid for with a BP grant.

Carter said, "We were able to do this and purchase the doubloons and the advertising with the Deepwater Horizon grant. Also the downtown guides. We're putting kiosks in the downtown. So really trying to promote the area."

Biloxi Main Street officials said they are not sure how long the program will last but if it's successful Doubloon Deals may continue throughout the year. @

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Share with others:

The nation's retailers battled bad weather, a short holiday season, economic uncertainty and each other to drive a 3.8 percent increase in total sales across November and December -- but the gain may have come at the cost of profits.

"Undoubtedly, some of the increase came at the expense of margin," said Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist for the National Retail Federation in an official release Tuesday offering the Washington, D.C., trade group's assessment of the holiday period.

The group, which had projected a 3.9 percent increase in holiday sales, called the final results that drove $601.8 billion in sales a success. Matthew Shay, president and CEO of the retail federation, described the performance as a testament to a resilient industry that knows how to deliver. He also made the case that it's a sign the economic recovery is picking up steam.

But the hard-fought battles did damage along the way, with some chains notifying investors in recent weeks that fourth-quarter results would be weaker than they had hoped.

That included American Eagle Outfitters, where sales in established stores fell 7 percent during the nine weeks ended Jan. 4. In a presentation at an analysts conference Tuesday, executives for the South Side teen clothing retailer acknowledged that they'd seen profit margins slip and that reducing markdowns is Printable Coupons this year's to-do list.

"It was widely reported to be a knockdown drag-out holiday between retailers with deep discounts putting added pressure on margins," wrote Ken Perkins, president of Retail Metrics Inc. in Swampscott, Mass., in a report this week. If retail profits overall finish down for the quarter, he said, that would be the first such dip since mid-2009, at the height of the Great Recession.

Results were uneven across chains. Macy's last week reported that sales at stores open at least a year rose a solid 4.3 percent in November and December, while Target noted that its sales dropped after a massive breach of customer credit and debit card information was revealed just before Christmas.

Overall, the pacing of this year's shopping was uneven, which probably contributed to stepped-up discounts, according to Chicago consulting firm ShopperTrak.

Like the retail federation, ShopperTrak read the holiday season results as an indication that the economy is growing, but said a big break that customers took after the Thanksgiving weekend pressured retailers to offer even more deals. Bad weather early in the month didn't help, exacerbating the issue of only having 25 days between Black Friday and Christmas, compared to 31 days in 2012.

ShopperTrak founder Bill Martin said, in his firm's report, that an improving economy should help profit margins. "As consumer confidence grows, there will be less need for retailers to heavily promote and discount their offerings."

Monday, January 13, 2014

Hyundai is counting On Sales a revamped Genesis full-size luxury car to pull buyers from market leaders Mercedes and BMW and help the Korean automaker recover from two years of lackluster U.S. sales.

The 2015 rear-drive Genesis, unveiled Monday at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, gets an all-wheel-drive option for the first time, making Hyundai competitive for luxury buyers in snowy locations.

It also goes high tech with an app that ties Google Glass headsets to Hyundai's Blue Link electronic safety, service and entertainment features.

Google Glass computerized headsets have been released to a limited number of early adopters. The glasses project text and images, and wearers can use voice, gestures or taps on a frame touch pad to give commands. People with the glasses can start their cars and unlock or lock doors remotely, find their cars in parking lots and search for points of interest or gas stations.

Hyundai's U.S. sales grew only 2.5 percent last year while the overall market grew almost 8 percent. A year earlier, the market grew more than 13 percent but Hyundai sales were up only 8.9. Hyundai blamed the slow growth on a lack of factory capacity to meet demand for some top-selling models.

For Genesis, demand was the problem. Genesis sales fell 4.8 percent last year in the aging model's final year. When the Genesis was introduced in 2009, Hyundai decided to sell luxury cars under the Hyundai brand rather than creating a new brand that would require more costly marketing. It's sticking with that philosophy with the new model.

Here are some highlights of the 2015 version, which will hit showrooms in the spring:

INSIDE: Hyundai claims the passenger compartment is the best in its class with 123 cubic feet of volume including the best headroom and rear shoulder room. BMW's 5-Series, the market's top seller, has 116 cubic feet, while the Mercedes E-Class has 113.1, according to Hyundai. The Genesis gets a simplified instrument panel with a more intuitive layout. It has storage bins for mobile electronic devices.

OUTSIDE: Large trapezoid-shaped front grille with horizontal bars. Aggressive looking hood and front lights, with a center-hood bump set off by creases. Sloped back end that leads to LED tail lamps. New chassis that's more rigid than current model for better handling. Optional all-wheel-drive. Aluminum front shock towers to cut weight.

UNDER THE HOOD: Two updated engines, 5-Liter V-8 with 420 horsepower and a 3.8-Liter, 311 horsepower V-6. Both are mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission for better efficiency.

GAS MILEAGE: Not released. Current V-6 version gets up to 27 mpg on highway.

PRICE: Hyundai says it will be under $40,000. Current model starts at $35,200 including shipping.

CHEERS: Costs less than competitors, giving drivers a lot of technology and features for the money.

JEERS: Hyundai name doesn't have the prestige of competitors such as BMW or Mercedes.

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Today in this vast globalizing world the web communication has emerged as the most important mode of communication as well as promotion. This paved the way for the uprising domain hosting corps like Godaddy which were developed at end of the 20th century.

This phase of web domain hosting has been increasing since the last decade. Today each and every irrespective of small house or big house corporates today every one require a certified web domain with basic facilities of hosting and security. With development of such demands the affordability and ease of setting up websites increased in a large scale. Today even the day has come when the web hosting registrar like Godaddy has started providing the Godaddy Coupons facilities. These coupons have specific discount or codes embedded in it which provides the purchaser of the domain name some offer to be cooperated with.

Significance of The GoDaddy Promo Code There is another facility provided by such web registrar like Godaddy promo code this is a uniquely identified code which determine the web domain of a customer .Furthermore rather than just providing the such technically complexed codes these registrars promote their sites by including providing star publishers to their jobs recently WWE superstar Candice Michelle was included in the go daddy for the promotion of certain web domains. This is just the present scenario these web registrars can emerge as certain web giants. They can indulge with certain other corporates and develop a new so called structure of web technologies. In addition to this these corporates can also include new innovative ideas I developing the websites like along with providing certain domain names one can they can add new developing graphics options in the websites which will provide the user a complete package for the development of a fully furnished website with no any other accessories to be added to it. Along with just making advertisements these should make a database of the users accessing their web domain purchase this will make them aware of the fact which king of people are likely to purchase which kind of web domain. Concluding this we could say these kind of web developer registrar are just in the first phase of their development thus commenting on their future would be totally injustice and improper judgement for them. These corporate can be the future giants or not it will be decided by the time passes.

Tesco, with 51 stores across Northern Ireland and 8,800 employees, saw a 2.8% drop in sales throughout the UK over the festive period

Christmas proved a struggle for Northern Ireland's second biggest employer as the growing competition from rivals and difficult overseas markets took its toll.

Tesco, which has around 8,800 employees across 51 stores in Northern Ireland, saw its like-for-like sales in the six weeks to January 4 across all its UK stores fall by 2.8% Review a same-store basis, excluding fuel.

The company blamed the comparative effect of strong sales in 2012 and a declining grocery market in the UK on the decline, but it comes only a day after Sainsburys revealed its Christmas sales increased in its "best ever" festive period.

"We continued to invest in the most compelling offer for the tens of millions of customers who chose to shop with us this Christmas, but further weakness in the grocery market as a whole continued to impact our performance in the UK, chief executive Philip Clarke said.

"Our ongoing work to 'Build a Better Tesco' in the UK is driving continued improvements for customers, although the effects are being masked in the short term by the strategic changes we have made to improve the long-term sustainability of our business - the transformation of our general merchandise business and the significant reduction in our new store opening programme."

Another significant player on the Northern Ireland retail scene, Marks & Spencer also revealed its results yesterday, and although it posted an apparently better picture than Tesco, it struggled to impress investors.

Total trading for both its food and general merchandising division rose in the eight weeks to January 4 by 1.5% but on a like-for-like basis, excluding new stores, sales fell 0.2%.

Once again, its clothing division failed to counter a 10-quarter decline, falling 2.1%, but sales in the food division grew by 1.6% over the same period.

"We delivered an improved performance in general merchandise over the important Christmas period, with sales up 1.5% in a highly promotional market," Marc Bolland, M&S chief executive commented.

He added: "However, an exceptionally unseasonal October, which saw GM sales down strongly, has resulted in a quarterly performance below our expectations."

Marks & Spencer employs 2,400 people in Northern Ireland in 18 stores. Its third largest UK store is at Sprucefield outside Lisburn.

Paying a price for discounts

Analysis by Simon Neville

Both are retailers keen to offer top-end, high-quality clothing at affordable prices to affluent and aspiring shoppers.

However, the contrast between Ted Baker's and Marks & Spencer's Christmas performance couldn't be more different

M&S, which has been striving to offer more top-end fashion, saw its general sales fall 2.1% on a like-for-like basis for the 13 weeks to December 28, compared with a year earlier.

It introduced heavy discounting in the run-up to Christmas, with chief executive Marc Bolland defending the decision by pointing to rivals like Gap.

By comparison, Ted Baker steadfastly refused to introduce discounting until Boxing Day and benefited from the move as sales jumped 18.3% in the eight weeks to January 4. The equivalent M&S period saw general merchandise sales rise just 1.5%.

Chief executive Ray Kelvin said the good results reflected "the strength of the brand, quality and design of our product".

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Commuters brave the frigid temperatures Tuesday morning when the wind chill made it feel like 10 below.

Relief is on the way from the record cold that turned New York City into an icebox Tuesday - if you can call 20-degree weather com nyc relief.

"After today we're going to be on a warming trend," said meteorologist Joe Pollina of the National Weather Service. "Tomorrow the high will be in the 20s, as opposed the teens today."

But wait, said Pollina, it gets better.

"By Thursday, it will be just above freezing in most places in the city," he said. "We continue to warm on Friday, to the lower to middle 40s. By Saturday, we could be in lower 50s across the metro area."

And this brutal Tuesday, on which cold weather records tumbled for this date like dominoes across the city, will be a memory.

That was cold comfort of a sort to the millions of New Yorkers who made the morning commute when the frost was at its fiercest, battling wind chills that got as low in the city as minus 18 degrees at LaGuardia Airport.

The coldest spot in the city was Central Park, where the 4-degree temperature reported at 9:39 a.m. shattered the 118-year-old record low of 6 degrees for this date which was set back on Jan. 7, 1896.

Record lows were also notched at LaGuardia Airport (4 degrees, old record of 11 was set in 1968) and Kennedy Airport (6 degrees, old record of 8 was also set in 1968).

There was also no reprieve from the wicked weather for the million or so public school students who schlepped to classes through the record cold.

Nor was there any break for New Yorkers who have to go outside to earn a living.

"Every time I'm about to go out into the street, I know I have to zip up," said Michael Bell, 48, of the Bronx, who spent the day carrying merchandise into the Gristedes in Chelsea. "You have to keep moving. It's when you stop that the cold sinks in."

Letter-carrier Trevon Hendricks, 25, of Brooklyn, said when he saw the forecast was for single digits he broke out the long johns. And he tried to look on the bright side.

"At least it's not Monday," he said. That's when people get the most mail, after the Sunday break. I spend a good four to six consecutive hours outside."

By the time Hendricks was wrapping his route, the temperature had inched up to 10 degrees with a wind chill factor of minus 10.

Jet Blue, which had halted flights in and out of New York City, Newark and Boston as the cold set in, also got back to business and resumed flying Tuesday.

The cold snap was caused by a "polar vortex" carrying bone-chilling Arctic air that started torturing much of the country's midsection earlier this week.

"It's going to get very cold, very quickly," Mayor de Blasio warned Monday, as the big chill began descending on the city. "We will get down to the single digits. With wind chill, we will be below zero in many parts of the city."

Sanitation workers were placed on 12-hour shifts. City workers were sent out to herd the homeless into shelters. The MTA and Port Authority braced for extreme cold. And the utilities brought in extra bodies in the event of power outages.

De Blasio was not exaggerating. The record low temps were accompanied by wind gusts of 50 mph that pushed the mercury even lower.

But all in all, New York City got off lightly.

Elsewhere in America, the freight train of frigid air was blamed for at least 15 deaths.

Airlines canceled more than 3,700 flights within the U.S. by late Monday, bringing the three-day total to more than 8,700 flights scrapped, according to the tracking service FlightAware.com.

The freezing temperatures came on the heels of a wacky weather cycle in New York City that started with last Thursday's snowstorm, followed by a brief warm-up which, in turn, was followed by torrential rains and more cold. Monday's high in the city reached a balmy 54.

And when dawn broke Tuesday, it was only 4 degrees warmer in Gotham than in Fairbanks, Alaska, where the temperature was a big fat zero.

Warmer weather is also heading to cities like Chicago, Milwaukee and Indianapolis, which have been in the deep freeze for days.

Sweet relief is also foreseen for cities not used to this kind of weather such as Atlanta, Nashville and Birmingham, Ala., where the temperatures were in the single digits earlier Tuesday.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Albany, GA -- ( SBWIRE) -- 01/02/2014 -- Finish Line recently announced that a variety of Finish Line coupons are going to be available online through various outlets for download. The recent publications for their coupons for the holiday shopping season and the months beyond give consumers the opportunity to shop Finish Line products and receive quality goods at great discounts. The coupons allow shoppers to save money at one of the busiest times of year and when new merchandise is just being released to the general public.

Finding Finish Line printable coupons and Price Compare codes for use online or in stores can seem difficult for some consumers and shoppers who need to look through to various sites on the Internet to find coupons that suit their needs the best.

With so many sites out there, it sometimes can be difficult and time consuming to find those that give the best deal. With this new offering, consumers can now get Finish Line coupon quickly and easily all from this one central location without having to spend a lot of time scouring Internet sites.

The coupons found at this site can make things much easier for holiday shoppers or those just looking for a good deal on some of the new offerings from Finish Line. Because the coupons are directly from the right source, consumers can be sure that they are not only getting the best discounts available from Finish Line but also the most accurate and up-to-date coupons available for the store. The coupons range in discount levels and cover a wide variety of merchandise that may appeal to just about anyone.

While some people may just be looking for general coupons to get a particular dollar amount off whatever is purchased, others may be looking for discounts on particular items that are stocked by the store. Coupons that are available cover the full range and offer several different levels so the money that can be saved can be quite significant.

Just about everything sold by the store has some type of coupon available so items such as shoes, backpacks, hooded sweatshirts, boots and nearly every other type of apparel or footwear can have some sort of percentage or dollar amount off of their price with the right coupon.

Many consumers love the sales that can be had through the use of the coupons, but there are also coupons that give an added bonus that can be very beneficial around this time of year. Some of the Finish Line coupon codes feature sales on purchases and also include free shipping on the purchase, making it a truly great deal for the savvy shopper using this type of coupon. These coupons offer some of the best benefits of all for shoppers and consumers alike.

There are some things that consumers need to be aware of where these coupons are concerned. The coupons do have an expiration date and must be used by the indicated date and time frame in order for the savings to be had. Also, coupons often have specific restrictions regarding certain merchandise and the eligibility of coupon use, so consumers need to read the coupons carefully to make sure that items selected are covered under the regulations of the coupons chosen in order to get the right discount.

The best discounts using Finish Line coupons are often found online through the use of these coupons, so consumers need to act quickly before certain coupons expire or merchandise sells out. Purchasing online gives the shopper a better chance of finding the merchandise they want at the best deals on the market today.

About Promos Nation Online shoppers can find all the latest coupons and discount code for Finish Line on Promos Nation website. The website not only list best deals for Finish Line products but also from other leading stores.

Lori and Jeremy from Nolensville ask: "About 30 days ago we accepted an offer on our home from a couple moving here from Ohio. They still have to sell their home but they felt it wouldn't take long to do so. We accepted the contingent offer after being reassured that we would continue to have showings on our place and if we got an offer from a second buyer we could get out of the first agreement if the first folks couldn't close. The problem is, since accepting the contingent offer, we have not had any more showings on our home. Can you tell us what has happened? We were getting two to three showings a week, now we aren't getting any. Has the market changed? Please help!"

Thanks for your question, Lori and Jeremy. Accepting an offer contingent upon the buyers selling their home seems like an innocent thing to do. After all, it "seems" like you would have the Deal Today of all worlds. Having your home sold and still being able to possibly sell for more or better terms, etc. The problem is that when accepting a contingent offer like this, we have just put all of our eggs in someone else's basket.

You see, first of all, we don't know how sellable the buyer's home is, especially in this case, as it is out of state. We don't know how experienced their agent is, if the home is priced correctly, if they can even sell it for what it is actually worth, if it is being marketed well, etc.

Secondly, because of local MLS rules, Realtors must make any property "contingent" in the MLS system when there is an agreed offer of any kind, regardless of terms. When we do that, it highlights that listing in yellow. And most experienced agents won't show a contingent listing to their buyers and take the chance that their buyers may not be able to buy that particular home because of the other pending offer. As an agent, few things are worse than watching a buyer fall in love with a particular home only to find out that it is actually already sold.

I'm so sorry that you guys find yourself in this situation. And what I have shared was not to make you feel worse about the current situation. Only to help you understand why the showings have slowed and to better equip you if you ever find yourselves in this kind of situation again.

What I would recommend to anyone being presented an offer on their home contingent upon the future "sale" of another property is to simply thank that buyer for their sincere interest in your home and let them know that you would love to entertain an offer from them to purchase your home once they have a solid contract on theirs.